Time to Stop Resisting Haiti’s Resistance

By Jean Saint-Vil, from Haiti list, November 2002

As political violence appears to be growing in Haiti in the midst of
outrageous calls to overthrow of a democratically-elected government;
As a Bush administration denies being, once again, involved in efforts
to overthrow Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide; As many
Haitians feel powerless in front of the barrage of pre-coup lies which
currently permeates the international press coverage of Haiti, I
invite those wishing to understand what is really going on down there
to do a little reading. It just might help put all this craziness in
proper context.

First, here are the basic FACTS OF THE DAY:

1) President Aristide was duly elected by the people of Haiti on
November 26, 2000—he obtained his 5 year term fair and square.

2) George W. Bush and many of his allies have tried and are continuing
to try covert (illegal) as well as overt (diplomatic) actions to
destabilize then overthrow President Aristide’s government.

3) President Aristide has lost a lot of support in Haiti because of
his government’s mismanagement of public affairs.

4) Progressive (majority of) Haitians feel trapped as many of them
would like to punish or reward Aristide and his party with their
electoral ballots. But powerful coup-plotting foreign and national
forces have successfully hijacked the country from its
people—offering fratricidal violence as a sole path out of the
dangerous stalemate they have created in the empovrished nation.

5) There is racial as well as class solidarity between members of the
coup-plotting elites of Haiti, the U.S., Dominican Republic and Europe
who are hell bent on deposing Aristide before his full term expires
normally on February 7, 2006.

Now, to understand these basic facts of the day, one must take a look
Haiti’s history (SANKOFA—Go back and fetch it!).

Haiti’s is a history which can be accurately described to be a
tale of two-way resistance. On the one hand, the (majority of) people
of Haiti are resisting White Supremacy. On the other hand, white
supremacy (supported by peoples of all color and class, both
consciously and unconsciously) is resisting the people of
Haiti’s stubborn determination to self-govern by black majority
rule.

This incredible, and seemingly never-ending saga of resistance, can be
summarized by the following FACTS:

The Republic of Haiti was created on January 1, 1804, following a
revolt of enslaved Africans who prevailed against the three dominant
European militaries of the time: France, England and Spain.

«This shattered the myth of white supremacy.... As punishment, Haiti
has been attacked, exploited, and vilified every since.»

Stan Goff, former U.S. soldier, author of Hideous
Dreamhttp://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/184.html

1. Resisting to Survive

1499-1791: Africans brought to the island and subjugated to legalized,
state-sponsored racial slavery by Europeans (French Code Noir
promulgated in 1685)—Europeans used torture, religion and murder
to maintain the white supremacist system. Je fis attacher le
sorcier et lui fis distribuer environ 300 coups de fouet qui
l’écorchèrent depuis les épaules jusque aux genoux�Je fis
mettre le sorcier aux fers après l’avoir fait laver avec une
pimentade (I had the sorcerer held by a post and flogged with 300
lashes that scorched him from his shoulder to his knees�then I had
him fixed to the irons after being washed with a mix of
peppers) Father Labbat quoted in Les Marrons de la liberté (1972),
Jean Fouchard, page 112.

1776: Africans of Haiti used in French Army (among them, 12 year-old
Henry Christophe—later to become King of Haiti) to fight British
forces at Savannah, Georgia —thus, helping White Americans gain
their independence from England.

1791- 1803: On November 18,1803, Battle of Vertières won by Africans
against Napoléon Bonaparte’s large expedition to Haiti. The 12
year uprising of Africans enslaved on the island culminates in
successive and definitive victories of the Africans over the armed
forces of Britain, Spain and France.

1804 (January 1): Haiti declares its independence and becomes the very
first nation on the continent to banish slavery. Jean-Jacques
Dessalines, Haiti’s liberator, offers Haitian citizenship to any
freedom seeker who lands on Haitian shores, including hundreds of
White Polish men who were brought to the island by Napoleon
Bonaparte’s army.

1805: Calling for Western [white supremacist ] solidarity , the
French foreign minister Prince Charles Talleyrand wrote to U.S
Secretary of State James Madison, The existence of a Negro people
in arms, occupying a country it has soiled by the most criminal acts,
is a horrible spectacle for all white nations. The United States
responds by banning trade with Haiti in 1806 and renewing its embargo
in 1807 and 1809. (Bellegarde-Smith, Haiti: The Breached Citadel
(HBC), p 49)

1815-1816: Simon Bolivar visits Haiti twice and receives military
assistance for South American Liberation. In March 1816 Bolivar left
Haiti with men, money, munitions, weapons, and a small press for
printing South American revolutionary literature and the proclamation
abolishing slavery. Bolivar began by freeing his own 1500 slaves,
Haiti’s only demand. Yet, Haiti’s invitation to attend the
Panama Congress of 1826 was withdrawn under U.S. Pressure, despite
the assistance Haiti had given to Latin American independence
movements (HBC, p50).

1825: French king Charles X crippled the young Black Republic of Haiti
with an outrageous ransom for recognition of 150 million
Francs-or, which he justified as indemnity to former slave owners
for loss of their property.

[1830: Abolition of racial slavery in Canada]

1838: France recognizes Haitian independence with initial payments on
multi-million Francs-or ransom. In 1922, the last payment was made on
the 60 million Francs-or eventually extorted from the Haitians by
France. (In May 2001, France finally acknowledged the Transatlantic
Slave Trade and Racial Slavery to be crimes which it committed against
humanity but still refuses to return the ransom collected from Haiti,
let alone pay reparations to the descendants of Africans it enslaved).

[1848: France abolishes slavery on its claimed territories]

1853: French Admiral Duquesne threatens to bombard Port-au-Prince to
restart payments on the French ransom which had been stopped in 1852
by Haitian Emperor Faustin Soulouque. The latter replied: Je
repousserai la force par la force (I will meet force with force),
and Duquesne let the matter rest. (Written in Blood, Heiln p199)

1857-1900: U.S.A. intervenes 19 times in Haitian affairs, often with
gun-boat diplomacy.

[1862: End of legalized racial slavery in the United States of
America and formal diplomatic recognition by that nation of the
Republic of Haiti].

1870: U.S. gun-boat aggression against Haiti using flagship
U.S.S. Dictator (This same year, the 15th Amendment is adopted,
finally giving Black males the right to vote in the U.S.A) .

1872: German gun-boat aggression against Haiti. Commodore Basch
collects 3000 Sterling Pounds from the Haitian government and defames
Haitian flag with German excrement.

1877: March: French gun-boat aggession against Haiti. At issue:
resumption of payments on the 1825 ransom—balance then
re-estimated at 20 million Francs-or. December: Repeat of Spanish
gun-boat aggression against Haiti. At issue: Suspected Haitian
assistance to rebels fighting to abolish slavery in Cuba.

August 1883: In the midst of popular riots in the capital city of
Port-au-Prince, diplomatic representatives of France, Britain,
Germany, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Norway and Sweden sign ultimatum
threatening Haitian President Lysius Féllicité Salomon of bombarding
Haiti’s National Palace.

1884: Spenser St-John, former British Consul-General in Haiti
publishes Hayti: Or the Black Republic in which Haiti is deemed an
island of «Vaudoux» practicing cannibals. His will be followed by
a host of other anti-Haiti, white supremacist publications like Where
Black Rules White (Prichard, 1910), in which the American author says
of Haitians and of their religion « the perpetuation of a cult so
degrading must have its source deep in the character of the race. Yet
you find that these undoubted cannibals can on occasion be both
kind-hearted and hospitable. Perhaps the root of it all lies in their
squalid ignorance». Hollywood would pick-up the theme with a string of
Zombie pictures, starting in the 1930s.

1890: First, using the diplomatic skills of Black abolitionist
Frederick Douglass, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, then using gunboat
diplomacy with as many as 7 warships, the U.S. attempts to
force Haiti to lease away Môle St. Nicholas as a naval base. Haitian
President Hyppolite citing his people’s Constitution, responds
negatively to all U.S. demands.

1915-1934: United States invades Haiti, seizes and expatriates its
national treasury and gold reserves, imposes a new constitution
allowing property ownership by Americans and dismissing the Haitian
legislature from 1917 to 1930. Haiti-U.S accord on reestablishing
Haitian Freedom signed in 1933 and on August 15, 1934 all U.S. Marines
left Haiti. (HBC, p184). As part of U.S. legacy, the reins of
political powers are strongly secured for the anti-black, pro-American
mulatto minorities on both sides of the island (Haiti and Dominican
Republic). During that period, as William Jennings Bryan of the
U.S. State Department could hardly control his surprise at Haitians:
Dear me, think of it. Niggers speaking French., the National
Geographic Magazine described life in Haiti with such words: while
the peasants thus took to the bush, the middle and upper class
Haitians gravitated to the seacoast towns, where they learned the art
of living by the expert exploitation, political and commercial, of the
unthinking black animals of the interior (National Geographic
Magazine, 1920: 497).

1937 (October): White Supremacist Dictator Raphaël Trujillo of
neighbouring Dominican Republic, benefiting of full support from his
great friends U.S. president F. D. Roosevelt and Haiti’s
Mulatto president Sténio Vincent, orders the massacre of as many as
30,000 Black Haitians in a fit of anti-Haitian sentiment which also
left countless Black Dominicans dead.

3. Resisting Black Majority Rule on Both Sides of the
Island—White Supremacist Powers Offer Lip Service to Democracy,
Tangible Support to Dictators and Help Reinforce Racist Stereotypes

1960s: In U.S., Black freedom fighter Dr. Martin Luther King gunned
down by CIA. Several others who stand to denounce white supremacist
policies like racial segregation are murdered by the KKK, CIA or other
U.S. government forces. Civil right struggles in the U.S. coincide
with continued and ever increasing migration of Haitian exiles
(fleeing Duvalier dictatorship) towards the U.S.A., Canada, Africa and
Europe.

1971: François Duvalier dies. U.S. Administration supervises transfer
of power to his son, 19 year-old Jean-Claude Duvalier and trains new
military unit: the Leopards.

1983: U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) contributes to worldwide
anti-Haitian propaganda with the infamous four H (4H) theory about
AIDS; namely that homosexuals as well as heroin addicts, hemophiliacs,
and Haitians were the most likely to have the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV). Haiti’s tourism industry takes fatal plunge and
U.S. applies ever more stringent anti-Haitian immigration
policies. Finally, in 1985, following widespread protest, the CDC
admits it was absurd to make nationality a biological or medical
determinant and took Haitians off their outrageous list.

1986: Dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier is deposed by popular
uprisings. He flees to Paris with millions of dollars in a U.S. Air
Force transport plane. French government pretends to accept him for a
week only, on temporary visa � (in 2002, he still lives and spends
his stolen fortune there). In Haiti, power is assumed by Haitian Army
but the people continue to demand democratic elections.

1988-1990 Several U.S.-backed military dictatorships rise and fall,
dodging popular demand for free elections.

1990: Democratic elections are finally organized. U.S. opposes
Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s candidacy and support their own
man, former World Bank employee: Marc Louis Bazin. Following
Aristide’s overwhelming victory in these democratic elections,
U.S. Ambassador Alvin Adams warns festive Haitians with Kreyòl proverb
Apre dans tanbou lou (After the dance, drums are heavy to
carry).

1991 (September: 7 months after Aristide’ swearing in): Army
officials now known to have been on CIA payroll (Nairn, 1995)
overthrew President Aristide in a bloody coup d’état in which
over 5000 Haitians perished. Former CIA Director, Georges Bush Sr.,
becomes President of the USA. The Vatican is the only state to
officially recognize the de facto government established by the
military putchists. (See: Haiti’s Nightmare The Cocaine Coup
& The CIA Connection by Paul DeRienzo,
http://pdr.autono.net/haiti.html).

1992: Shocking Murder of Prominent Aristide Supporter and Campaign
Financer Antoine Izmery who revealed to the New-York Times that Jimmy
Carter had tried to get Aristide to concede the election before the
first votes were counted. (Written in Blood, Heinl p735) «The Bush
and Clinton administrations expressed support for Aristide as
Haiti’s elected president, but behind the scenes the junta had
powerful allies in the CIA and in the offices of conservative US
Senators Jesse Helms and Robert Dole.» (Everybody Needs Some Bodies
Sometime (Haiti)—excerpted from the book Toxic Sludge Is Good
For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry The
Torturers’ Lobby by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton)
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Public_Relations/TortLob_Haiti_TSIGFY.html

Jesse Helms, a leading opponent of Aristide, brought CIA analyst
Brian Latell to Capitol Hill, to brief selected senators and
representatives on allegations that Aristide had been treated for
mental illness. It turned out that the time during which the CIA
report alleges Aristide was treated at a Canadian hospital falls
within the same period that Aristide was studying and teaching in
Israel.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/a.../helm-a31.shtml

« The CIA fabricated an attack on Aristide’s character that fell
apart when it came under public scrutiny. The CIA director then
revealed to a congressional committee that his agency had retained on
the payroll several military officers who had overthrown the elected
president »

Haiti: Success Under Fire, by
James Morrell http://www.us.net/cip/haiti01.htm

In the spring of 1994, at the height of a campaign of murder and
rape orchestrated by FRAPH (Front for the Advancement and Progress of
Haiti), a terror group organized on behalf of Haiti’s military,
several publications received unauthorized copies of cables
originating from the US. embassy-with the im-primatur of
U.S. ambassador Leslie Swing. Haiti is culturally violent, the
cables declared, rape was always accepted in Haitian society and
women are learning to report it now mainly for political gains.
From How The Major U.S. Media Are Undermining Democracy
by Jean Jean-Pierre

Fall 1994: After 3 years of boat-people landings on Florida
shores, international negotiations in the midst of world-wide
protests, including hunger strike by black activist Randall Robinson,
the U.S. Army invades Haiti on September 19, 1994 and, in the process,
seized and expatriated 160,000 pages of sensitive documents then
suspected to link the CIA with murderers in Haiti. After several
broad-day assassinations of other key Aristide associates (Lawyer Guy
Malary, Father Jean-Marie Vincent) by the FRAPH paramilitary, now
confirmed to be linked to the CIA, a U.S. Airforce carrier finally
brings President Aristide back to Haiti.

« The policy of dumping refugees back into Haiti or into Guantanamo
became untenable. Not only were more and more of them truly eligible
for political asylum, but there was a gross and offensive racism in
barring black refugees while letting in whites. Randall
Robinson’s twenty-seven day hunger strike touched a chord among
millions of black Americans and indeed all fair-minded
Americans ».

James Morrell in Haiti: Success
Under Fire,http://www.us.net/cip/haiti01.htm

STILL, little-known is the fact that Aristide’s return was
confirmed—not until he was forced to agree that 1) his 3 years
of exile be considered as part of his 5-year presidency and 2)
he signs the infamous Paris Accord of August 1994, which was
negotiated by the World Bank and the IMF� under concerted
pressures from several neo-colonial powers (U.S, France, Canada). The
Paris Accord called for the drastic reduction of tariffs and import
controls, an open foreign investment policy, and
privatization—all, policies that ran counter to the nationalist
and popular mandate of Aristide’s 1991 government. «
We’ll have the banks, the national cooperative, the telephone
company, the electricity company-all strategic sectors- in the hands
of multinational corporations.» « Aristide was like a prisoner of war
in Washington. An accord signed under such conditions could not be
valid.»

Camille Chalmers, renowned Haitian economist in—Haiti’s
Latest Coup: Structural Adjustment and the Struggle for Democracy,
Multinational Monitor, May 1997
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/IMF_WB/Haiti_StrucAdj_MNM.html A
jubilant former U.S Ambassador, Robert White, is inspired to declare
to the Boston Globe: I think the best thing that has happened to
Aristide and his administration-in-exile is that they have had a crash
course in democracy and capitalism

October 15, 1994, like a subdued hostage Jean-Bertrand Aristide
is returned to organize elections to find himself a suitable successor
as President of Haiti.

1994-1995: Much to the dismay of the U.S. Administration and its
allies, President Aristide disbands the Haitian Army, asks support for
a national disarmament program and adopts a foot-dragging attitude
towards implementation of the Paris Accord. U.S. Army in Haiti helps
several paramilitary killers escape Haitian justice. Most notorious
among them, admitted CIA operative Emmanuel (Toto) Constant who moved
to New-York (where he resides to this day !) and exhibitionist
torturer Prosper Avril (now jailed in Haiti).

«The history of the abuse of Haiti, which in our lifetime has become a
tragedy, is also the story of Western civilization’s racism.»

Eduardo Galeano in Haiti, Despised by All,
December 1996

1995-96: Haitian population elects as president, Aristide’s ally
and former Prime Minister René Garcia Préval. Millions of dollars of
international aid promised to help rebuild Haiti at the
time of the 1994 return of Democracy never materialize. With
much political maneuvering, President Préval begins to implement the
Structural Adjustment Program imposed by the neo-colonial powers while
taking a few verbal jabs at the still hostile Port-au-Prince
diplomatic corps (see January 1, 1999 independence day speech
http://www.haiti.org/rp1janvye.htm). Préval organizes legislative and
presidential elections whose results are contested by a
nationally-insignificant but internationally-propped-up
opposition. Amid, the ensuing electoral crisis, President
Préval manages to complete his full term in office.

« Haiti has been plunged into one of the gravest crises of its
history. The crisis began with the implementation of the Paris accord
by the Aristide government. The accord, it seems, was one of the
conditions imposed on the Lavalas leader by the so-called friends of
Haiti, notably the United States, Canada and France, for restoring him
to power. »

Sony Esteus, director of programming for
SAKS, an organization which supports community-based radio in
Haiti. In Haiti: The Crisis Persists,
http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue31/esteus31.htm

1997: American Christian Pastors lead Haitian counterparts to Bwa
Kay Iman, site of the 1791 uprising, in an evangelical crusade to
convert Boukman (slained leader of 1791 uprising) and Haiti to
Christianity—taking them away from Satan in the name of
Jesus!. President René Préval, obliged to intervene to cool down
rising tensions of religious violence, declares Bwa Kay Iman, a
national park. To this day, some American «Pastors» and their cronies
are using the same incredibly racist tactics as their 19th century
European ancestors to collect money in the name of bringing Jesus
to a Satanic Black people. See: www.bli.org.

2000: Once again, the Haitian population elects Jean-Bertrand Aristide
to the presidency of their country, as Republican candidate George
W. Bush becomes President of the United States. American right wing
agencies, the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which openly opposed
Aristide’s election, provide assistance to Convergence
Democratique (CD), a 15-party opposition coalition which declares the
elections fraudulent and, in challenge of Aristide’s legitimacy,
names its own alternative president while some of its members (CD)
bluntly declare their intention to violently overthrow Aristide with
assistance of the CIA and the disbanded Haitian Army—for a
second time around. The most determined of these men, with a
promise of anonymity, freely express their desire to see the
U.S. military intervene once again, this time to get rid of Aristide
and rebuild the disbanded Haitian army. That would be the cleanest
solution, said one opposition party leader. Failing that, they
say, the CIA should train and equip Haitian officers exiled in the
neighboring Dominican Republic so they could stage a comeback
themselves. Haiti Torn by Hope and Hatred As Aristide Returns to
Power by Edward Cody (Washington Post, February 2, 2001)

2001: Two murderous armed attacks against Haiti, arriving by way of
the Dominican Republic took place on July 28 and December 17. Such
actions were predicted as early as February 1996, in a detailed (MUST
READ) report by Andrew Reding titled: Haiti: An Agenda for
Democracy, in which one can read much of the CIA’s old
network, including its highest-ranking member, Michel François,
remains at large on Hispaniola, possibly plotting a comeback.
http://www.worldpolicy.org/americas/carib/haiti96.html#cia

Incredibly, the U.S. and the OAS declared that these attacks against
the Haitian government were not coup attempts. Instead [to further
frustrate the Haitian people and her government], they join the
European Union in demanding that, Haiti’s government pays
multi-million dollar reparations to its opposition for victims
and loss of property it suffered during the popular unrest that
followed the Dec 17th attack.

Furthermore, the same neo-colonial nations, members of a
self-appointed conglomerate calling itself Friends of Haiti
within the OAS, insist that all aid or loans to the Government
of Haiti shall be suspended until a political compromise is reached
between the duly elected government and its foreign-backed opponents.

As a matter of fact, they hold hostage $500 million in international
aid and loans to the Haitian government, including loans from the
Inter-American Development Bank earmarked for education, healthcare
and infrastructure projects, such as potable water. Outrageously,
Haiti is now required to pay arrears payments and credit commissions
on loans that it has not received. Many legal experts believe that
the IDB faces possible legal exposure for failing to honor signed
contracts with the Haitian Government.

Meanwhile, the dire socio-economic conditions of a ruined country
coupled with the political and psychological destabilisation that the
people of Haiti (which dared again to elect a government on its own)
have had to endure—AND the multiple errors, faults, concessions
(Structural Adjustment, Privatization, Creation of Free Zones) and
outright disappointments caused by a weakened and overwhelmed Aristide
government—are giving rise to sporadic outbursts of violence
that are dangerously reminiscent of the days just prior to the Rwandan
genocide of 1994.

2002: As people world-wide are becoming more and more fed-up with the
blatant racism of powerful neo-colonial nations towards Haiti,
conflicts start to boil openly within the OAS between Black-led
CARICOM nations and several Latin-American nations who are sympathetic
to Haiti and White-led former colonial powers and colonies.

In the U.S, long-time allies of the Haitian people, such as the
Congressional Black Caucus and several progressive Whites, denounce
the illegal U.S. and European-led embargo against Haiti. To this
effect, the Congressional Black Caucus tables Resolution 382 «New
Partnership for Haiti» in the U.S. Congress.

They raise their voices to indicate how the racist anti-Haiti
sanctions violate the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, the World
Health Organization Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of
Children, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Charter
of Economic Rights and Duties of States.

The U.S. government is blocking aid to Haiti in order to expand the
influence of a single political party that is supported by less than
four percent of the Haitian electorate. Congresswoman Maxine
Waters, Congressional Black Caucus

A lot of the people with whom I live—they’re from
central Haiti—point out the similarity between this embargo and
that imposed on the Haitian people by the United States after their
revolution made them, in 1804, the first independent black republic in
the world. The United States refused to recognize the new Republic of
Haiti for some 60 years—until 1862—in large part because
of the objections from U.S. slaveholding states.

Dr. Paul Farmer In December 2001 interview with The Haiti Bulletin, A
Ross-Robinson & Associates Publication. Dr. Farmer is Professor of
Medicine and Anthropology at Harvard University. This
internationally-respected health expert established a clinic in Haiti
in the early 1980’s and has remained an active practitioner in
the health care delivery system of that country.

Meanwhile, right-wing Republicans maintain pressure on the OAS to vote
one resolution after another unfavorable to the Haitian
government. Prompting the highly-respected Council on Hemispheric
Affairs to conclude: The international wing of the Republican Party
(IRI) and Bush’s White House appear to be conspiring against the
hemisphere’s poorest nation.
http://www.coha.org/Press_Releases/02-15-Haiti.htm

Many are beginning to see in this latest page of the saga of the
Haitian people, the dirty fingerprints of a powerful international
network of white supremacists, fomenting civil unrest in Haiti as was
the case during the 19th and 20th centuries.